I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I wonder why myself. Those mornings when your old creaky bones complain, the cold ones like today when you have to wash a horses legs to perfection with a hose. The work involved that nobody see's like the 365 days a year when your company partner wants his hay and oats, rain, sleet, snow, and shine just like they always say about the mail service. The heavy physical work of loading, unloading, and moving carriages, scooping poop, and wrangling a wheelbarrow, and cleaning harness.We do it all ourselves.
The trips to the vet, for equine dental exam's, meds, or anything else that might crop up. The farrier (that is the guy that trims their hooves) we cant forget him, and the touch up trims I do myself in between his visits to keep the hooves as perfect as possible at all times. The handling of semi loads of square bales and nearly 200 rounds every year. When you stop to think for a moment all that is involved it really is a wonder anyone would willingly engage in that level of work.
There are lots of things we give up too. Like vacations, or even overnight trips together. New cars, or just newer cars, nice clothes, or jewelry what wasn't bought from the everything for a dollar store. Oh the woes of having a business who's out go always seems to exceed its incoming, and here I have to laugh a little, you know...so I don't cry.
So why? I am sure you are thinking the same thing I do on occasion. Believe it or not, I can tell you why. The answer is pictured above on this baby boys face over touching one of my horses. The answer is in a brides mother looking at our carriage and saying "The decorations are perfect! how did you know?" Or the joy at a nursing home of listening to a resident tell me about how their family used draft horses to farm all while stroking a soft nose from a wheelchair. The repeat customers who call us back year after year telling us their folks have not stopped talking about the carriage rides since we were there the last time. The delight in a little girls face when all of the sudden it dawns on her that if Cinderella's carriage is a real thing, so... Santa Claus and Prince Charming probably are too! The magic in the air after we pick up a brand new bride and groom only seconds after becoming man and wife. The wonderful thank you cards that surprise us in the mail. Even things as simple as the nice things people say about our service on our facebook page. All of these things and much, much, more.
As Randy Travis so eloquently sang " Its not what you take when you leave this world behind you..., but what you leave behind you... when you go"
